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Greenland ice sheet (CLIM 009) - Assessment published Sep 2008
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The Greenland ice sheet changed in the 1990s from being in near mass balance to losing about 100 billion tonnes of ice per year. Ice losses may have doubled again by 2005. Accelerated flow of outlet glaciers to the sea accounts for more of the ice loss than melting. The contribution of ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet to global sea-level rise is estimated at 0.14-0.28 mm/year for the period 1993-2003 and has since increased. In the long term, melting ice sheets have the largest potential to increase sea level. No reliable predictions of the future of the ice sheets can yet be made; the processes causing the faster movement of the glaciers are poorly understood and there is a lack of long-term observations.
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Greenland ice sheet
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Area of Greenland ice sheet melting 1979-2007
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Note: The maps show the area of the Greenland ice sheet with at least one day of surface melting in summer. The diagram shows the cumulated melt area, which is defined as the annual total sum of every daily ice sheet melt area. For example, if a particular area is melting on 20 days in a given year, it is counted 20 times.
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Greenland’s Health Ministry signs cooperation agreement with EEA
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The Ministry of Health in Greenland has signed an agreement with the European Environment Agency (EEA). The two organisations committed to exchange personnel, and share knowledge, data and other expertise on environment-related health issues.
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News
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Waste in Greenland
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From densely populated cities to remote settlements, everywhere we live, we generate waste. Food leftovers, electronic waste, batteries, paper, plastic bottles, clothing, old furniture - they all need to be disposed of. Some end up re-used or recycled; others are burned for energy or sent to landfills. There is not a single way to manage waste that would work everywhere. How we do it needs to take into account local circumstances. After all, waste starts as a local issue. Given its sparse population, long distances between settlements and lack of road infrastructure, here is how the Greenland government approaches the country’s waste issue.
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Signals — every breath we take
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Signals 2012
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Interviews
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Melting area 1979–2008 and mass change 2003–2009 of the Greenland ice sheet
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Note: The maps on the left show the area of the Greenland ice sheet with at least one day of surface melting in summer. The diagram on the left shows the cumulated melt area, which is defined as the annual total sum of every daily ice sheet melt area. For example, if a particular area is melting on 20 days in a given year, it is counted 20 times.
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Data and maps
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Maps and graphs
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Mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet from mass budget calculations
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The figure shows the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet from mass budget calculations.
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Greenland is stepping up its efforts to improve waste management
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Reduce, reuse, recycle – the common mantra of waste management makes the process sound simple. But while these three ingredients may be the same, the recipe for sustainable waste management can be very different – and Greenland’s unique environment presents some considerable challenges.
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News
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Greenland ice sheet (CLIM 009) - Assessment published Nov 2012
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The Greenland ice sheet is the largest body of ice in the Northern Hemisphere and plays an important role in the cryosphere. It changed in the 1990s from being in near mass balance to losing about 100 billion tonnes of ice per year. Ice losses have since then more than doubled to 250 billion tonnes a year averaged over 2005 to 2009.
The contribution of ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet to global sea-level rise is estimated at 0.14–0.28 mm/year for the period 1993–2003 and has since increased. The recent melting of the Greenland ice sheet is estimated to have contributed up to 0.7 mm a year to sea-level rise, which is approximately one quarter of the total sea-level rise of about 3.1 mm/year.
Model projections suggest further declines of the Greenland ice sheet in the future but the processes determining the rate of change are still poorly understood.
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Greenland ice sheet
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Change in mercury concentration in human and animal hair from Greenland
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Maps and graphs
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Estimated changes of the ice mass in Greenland 1992-2006
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Note: The rectangles depict the time period of the observations (horizontal) and the upper and lower estimates of mass balance for that period (vertical), calculated by different techniques as marked with colour codes
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